OSSEOUS FISHES. 601 



bait, but they are chiefly taken by the drift-net. The drift-net is 

 twenty feet deep and a hundred and twenty feet long, well buoyed at 

 the upper edge, but without weights at the bottom. The meshes, 

 made of fine twine tarred to a reddish colour for preservation, are 

 calculated to admit the head of the fish and catch it by the gills, so as 

 to prevent its withdrawal. A fleet of mackerel-boats dragging these 

 large nets, which are extended vertically in the sea, or float between 

 the two tides, is well represented in PL. XXXII. 



The flesh of the mackerel is fat and high flavoured. Among the 

 ancients a liquid was extracted from this fat called garum, which was 

 considered a very nourishing preparation. The price of this liquid was 

 very high; in modern measures it was valued *at about sixteen 

 shillings the pint. It was acrid, half putrefied, and very nauseous, 

 but it had the property of rousing the appetite and stimulating the 

 digestive organs. Garum played the part of a condiment at a period 

 when the exciting array of Indian spices was unknown. Seneca 

 charges it, as we do pepper and other hot spices taken in excess, with 

 destroying the stomach and health of gourmands. This garum is 

 spoken of by the traveller Pierre Belon, writing in the sixteenth 

 century, as being held in great estimation at Constantinople in his 

 time. Eondelet, the author of a very remarkable book published in 

 1554, who ate garum at the table of William Pellicier, Bishop of 

 Maguelonne, thought he could trace the liquid not to the mackerel, 

 but to one of the Sparo'ides (Sparus smaris). 



The mackerel possesses phosphorescent properties which cause it 

 to shine in the dark, especially after death, when decomposition has 

 commenced. 



The mackerel is not only voracious, but, in spite of its small size, 

 it has the hardihood to attack fishes much larger and much stronger 

 than itself. It is even said that they love human flesh. According 

 to the naturalist bishop, Pontoppidan, who lived in the sixteenth 

 century, a sailor belonging to a vessel which had cast anchor in one 

 of the Norwegian ports, when bathing one day in the sea, was 

 assailed by a shoal of mackerel. His companions came to his relief ; 

 the eager band were repulsed with great difficulty, but not till it was 

 too late : the unfortunate sailor was so exhausted that he died a few 

 hours after. By a natural law of compensation the ubiquitous mackerel 

 is surrounded by numerous enemies ; the larger inhabitants of the ocean 



